HBG

The news that we now have the caliphate of Andalus startled me when I read of it a few days ago. It startled me because I live in it, apparently without knowing it.

But it sounded familiar and I looked up some old Spanish history books. It's not new at all, the caliphate existed for hundreds of years, hundreds of years ago.

It wasn't a cruel place as the Western media seem to be implying Isis is trying to establish in a large part of Syria and Iraq, it was a benign place more famous for its culture than wars and beheadings.

jimenato

Here's the map proving it.



I'm glad it's a benign, peaceful, cultured place - I'm sure everything will be OK.

scot47

Lots of writing about the Muslim period. Much of it is tendentious or biased.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Spain

HBG

I wonder if the Caliphate will be easier to live in than present day Spain (for guiris)?

I live in fear of bulldozers flattening my property for no reason or motorways being built across my garden, at my cost. They are trying to tax me for money I earned the hard way in Scotland and England long before I ever came to Spain.

I'm constantly required to sign and pay for daft bits of paper nobody wants to see. If they think I owe money to anyone for anything, they just take it out of my bank account.

I wonder if the Caliph Abu something can do any better?

stuboy

It sounds like you've had enough. Time to come here methinks.

As for the Caliphate in Spain many years ago I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been anything like as harsh as ISIS intends for the Middle East.

jimenato

I suspect a lot of guiris will be influenced by whether or not drinking will be allowed and, in the case of females, whether their nether regions will be left intact.

stuboy

Hanging on to their ha'penny will be the least of their problems.

Domino

there hasn't been a Caliphate since 1031 when Hisham III died. The caliphate disintegrated and mostly became Emirates. The most famous of which was probably that of the Nasrid's in Granada. But that ceased to exist on 2 Jan 1492 when Muhammad XII (also known as Boabdil - the Spanish version, but then the Spanish always change people's names to suit their own ends).

why not go back to the British Empire, why not Queen Elizabeth II regain the French territories that were lost centuries ago. The only problem with France being the Frenchmen that live there

As "successful" as ISIS claims to be it will take decades if not centuries to achieve what they are suggesting. If they are allowed to succeed.
But it is odds on many living in the UK who would be willing to try to add that to the inventory.

Maybe1day

Weren't the Emirs answerable to the Kaliphs,,,,,,, sorry can't find question mark on this spanglish keyboard. Probably talking out of my hat!!
M

two tubes of toothpaste

I think you need to fiddle about with the language setting for the keyboard (teclado) which I have set to ES. It still allows you to type in English.

EMR

Different sect of Islam, the practices you refer to were not practiced in Spain or much of the Islamic world at that time.
Nor in fact is FGM part of the majorty of the Muslim world.

Domino

not when you haven't had a caliph for a couple of hundred years

HBG

I don’t know the date of this map, but it makes a lot more sense than the re-drawn maps currently in use and causing the current conflicts right round the region.

The Isis rebels, or freedom fighters, seem to want their own Islamist state under Sharia law in a large area of lawless Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of thousand of people have died so far, millions have fled and the idea of western style democracy is just a sick joke.

I doubt if its within our (Western Christian) control, but wouldn’t it solve our problems if such a Caliphate was established in the Middle East? If nothing else it would be an easy target for our drones.

And if our dissatisfied Islamist youth, like those from Cardiff, wanted to go and live there, let’s encourage them, help them on their way, maybe even force them to live there?

jimenato

Seeks like a good idea - there's got it be something wrong with it. Are we happy that the new caliphate will include Spain and Greece?

HBG

No, this new Caliphate would be the one for Syria and Iraq that has just been proclaimed by the freedom fighters, Spain and Greece are functioning democracies and part of the EU which will defend them should they be attacked by Islamists.

As functioning democracies, the people will have a vote and could vote for an Islamist party should they wish. On the other hand, if the people vote for a right wing nationalist party, as they have done in the past, and that party wants to deport Islamic dissidents to a country where they belong, like this new Islamist country, then that should happen.